About a month ago my friends saw a small butterfly in their garden (we live in Eccles, Salford), one which they hadn't seen before. They saw it both flying and settled and described it as having about a 1 and a half inch wingspan. It was solid red with a narrow black stripe fringing the wings on the upper edge.

We've hunted and hunted for a similar one to identify it, but have had no luck. Can anyone help?

Hi Jeanne
My first thought was cinnabar moth too but there are probably many others. If you have any ragwort growing in your area you may well be able to find the cinnabar moth caterpillars now, they are orange and black. Happy hunting

It certainly sounds like a cinnabar, I was going through some of my shots yesterday trying to put IDs on everything and found some cinnabars in amongst lots of spotted burnets, I hadn't even noticed them at the time I was taking them. doh.

Thanks all for the suggestions and to Alan for the welcome! My friends say 'no' to the cinnabar. The orangey-red seems OK, but they definitely confirm that the red was solid (sounds odd to me, but another one was spotted in the area also described as 'all red' except for having a narrow black line on the edge of the wings'). Ah me, looks like we'll have to give up on this one!

Chris-
I was just visiting Ireland last week and got a very blurry shot of a small moth with black wings, three red stripes on the forward edge of the wings like sargent's stripes, and a large red patch at the rear of each wing starting at the body. It was definitely NOT a cinnabar.
I could send you the photo if you would send me your email address. Any thoughts?

Chris-
I was just visiting Ireland last week and got a very blurry shot of a small moth with black wings, three red stripes on the forward edge of the wings like sargent's stripes, and a large red patch at the rear of each wing starting at the body. It was definitely NOT a cinnabar.
I could send you the photo if you would send me your email address. Any thoughts?

Jeanne here -- not Chris. The mystery moth I'm looking for is definitely orangey-red with no other markings except the narrow black line along the upper edge. I don't think your black one could possibly be the one do you? Perhaps a close relation?